>> hello and a very warm welcome to "european journal" coming to you from dw studios in brussels. it's very good to have you with us. here's a look at some of the stories we have for you today -- ukraine -- crimean tartar's. britain -- how journalists are defying the secret service. and greece -- why the lights could go out for small fishermen .

relations between east and west have not been this bad since the cold war. the fall of the viktor yanukovych regime in the ukraine and the resulting tug-of-war between tf and moscow have led to fears that ukraine might break up altogether -- the tug-of-war between key iev and moscow. during the second world war, stalin forced them to relocate to central asia. in early 1990's, the authorities allow them to return, but now the tartars are worried history might repeat itself. >> this is a village of about 600, off the beaten path in southeastern crimea. the quiet of the early spring missed he lies the turmoil of the peninsula elsewhere. in the 1990's, crimean tartars began to return to the region. all this family had to start with was a ramshackle hut

overgrown with weeds. >> we built a greenhouse and planted a garden here. we grow radishes and onions in it. >> he earns a bit of extra money on the side as a driver using his own car. mustafa is a heavy equipment operator or machinist, as it was called in soviet times. backing crimea, he cannot find regular work, so the family lives off what they can gro. the tartars have put of greenhouses like this all over crimea. it looks like it will be a good harvest this year, but if russia ends up taking back over crimea, many are not as optimistic about their prospects. >> as i see it, that's aggression and attack by russia. that's not right. >> they gather in their living room to all of developments as best they can.

mustafa's mother is 77 years old . she makes coffee and the traditional turkish way. the tartar settles in crimea over the centuries and originally spoke a turkic language. soviet dictator josef stalin accused all non-russian and non-ukrainian ethnic groups in crimea of collaborating with nazis and had all crimean tartars deported. 10,000, nearly half, died on the journey. this family had just 15 minutes to pack the bare necessities. then they were deported to central asia. the trauma remains to this very day. >> i cannot talk about all that without tears. i lost a son in the red army.

he fell in battle. now my grandson is in the ukrainian army. how can i remain calm? >> the crimean tartars are muslim. it's been just 20 years since the new mosque yesterday mosque was built. the imam appears -- appeals to the crew -- the imam appeals to the parishioners to refrain from violence. his words have weight. >> we have been calling for the integrity and indivisibility of ukraine. >> the council halls are still flying the ukrainian flag. nobody here wants to see crimea and expired russia. >> i don't understand it. what more power does putin want?

what more power does ukraine want? come to your senses and resolve it or diplomacy. >> if diplomacy fails, she may well have to fear for her grandson in the army. in recent days, ethnic russian forces have blockaded ukrainian bases in crimea, and once again, the fate of the crimean tartars rests with the power play in their homeland. >> since the revelations of edwin snowden, we've known the british secret service collects and stores data with the same impudence as their u.s. colleagues from the nsa, but "the guardian" newspaper in particular has published story after story about how the agency snooped around and violated citizens' privacy. british authorities are not amused and have openly harassed "guardian" journalists. >> "the guardian" newspaper took on a powerful opponent when it

decided to push for greater internet freedom. the secret service monitoring station is capable of recording and analyzing a person's every online step. the site became public knowledge last year when a group of journalists began publishing edward snowden material. once a well guarded secret, the true extent of internet surveillance has now come to light. as has the extent to which the british government's communication headquarters are in cahoots with the nsa. we meet one editor, a quiet yet determined proponent of internet freedom. he admits to having been astonished when he first realized the full extent of internet surveillance. >> i had no idea that everything about our lives is collectible, storable, and analyzable, and

that this was happening on a gargantuan scale. maybe i was very naïve. i just did not know that. >> not long thereafter, british prime mr. david cameron made it clear that "the guardian" was on dangerous ground. >> deciding to appeal to a newspapers better sense of social responsibility, but if they do not demonstrate some, it will be difficult for the government to stand back and not act. >> legal action is possible because no rules about britain's press freedom are laid out in the constitution. >> essentially, we were operating under a threat of legal action. there came a moment where i asked the british government directly if they were going to take legal steps to prevent us from publishing. >> but that did not stop them from continuing to publish the snowden revelations. until downing street presented him with an ultimatum -- they wanted the snowden files.

he had the material sent to the u.s. and agreed to destroy the hard drive containing the snowden material. >> there were serious negotiations in which they wanted to know what to expect before destroying it, and i was not happy with that, so the compromise we reached supposed that we would actually hold drills and they would tell us what to destroy. it turns out to be more comforted to destroy a computer than you would think. >> quite a surreal situation. >> it was the most surreal thing i have ever come across. >> but the pressure continued to mount, not least financially. >> "the guardian" is not a huge organization. this is a relatively small newspaper with a pretty small

circulation. does not have infinite resources. i think that shows all the more how brave he has been and how strong the newspaper have been to take a very unpopular stance in britain. >> the conservative rest began to wage a campaign, rolling out simplistic, populist arguments about the preservation of national security. in december, he was called to appear before the home affairs select committee. his pen between his teeth, if he was feeling the pressure, he did not show it. >> you have damaged this country as a result of what you have done. >> we have never used a single name. that is the crucial bit. i love this country. do you love this country echo -- do you love this country? >> yes, we are patriots.

one of the things we are patriotic about is the nature of democracy and the nature of our free press. >> how did they cope with this pressure? >> i take no exercise. i drink and listen to the radio all night and play the piano. >> spoken like a true threat -- brit. he declines to share the next major revelation. his last success which forced president obama to speak publicly about the nsa scandal is not long ago. >> i thought obama's speech was symbolically important. it may have been politically somewhat reassuring, but, of course, the battle for who controls these vast flows of information -- that's only just started. >> a battle in which a whistleblower in moscow and a small group of committed journalist have already scored a partial victoy.

>> i don't think we can just go back to where it was before with these things being done in secret and there being no consent or democratic discussion about it. >> so something has changed? >> something has changed. >> a quiet but tough proponent of internet freedom. >> we have long lost control about who does what with our private data. one example our car navigation systems that also transmit lots of information. a recent study analyzed the data of 100 million cars in europe and north america, and at least, now we know that belgium tops the list of countries with the worst traffic jams. trafford in brussels is worse than it is in l, manon, or london -- in l.a., milan, or london. >> taken together, traffic jams

can add up to hundreds of kilometers. over 300,000 commuters drive into and out of the belgian capital every weekday, making it one of the most congested cities in the world. during the day, it's a short hop, but during morning rush hour, it can take as long as an hour and a half. he has moved a large part of his office out of brussels. >> we have an enormous mobility problem. it's getting harder and harder to get the employees, especially the ones from flanders, to come into the office here in brussels. >> the brussels area infrastructure is obsolete. plans to expand and have been in the works for years with little progress. heavy goods traffic has also been on the increase with trucks

whingeing their ways to the port of antwerp and rotterdam. it's becoming clear that expansion alone is not the answer. concepts for traffic control are urgently needed. >> our traffic problems can no longer be solved by building new roads. the possibilities are limited and too expensive. the only real solution is to motivate people to take other means of transportation or drive at other times. for that, all we have our systems like flexible toll or the kilometer-based charge. >> the first trial versions of this toll system are already rolling. bruno is one of 200 test subjects. >> now we are entering the highway. the toll is now at 2.9 cents per kilometer. >> the device uses satellites to track where people drive and

when, calculating the toll per kilometer. the toll is highest during rush hour. the idea is to believe some of the pressure during peak traffic periods. >> we have to get one out of five cars off the roads. we think we can. many trips i just too short -- less than five kilometers. some of those trips could be covered on foot or at least with public transportation. we just have to get people to change their habits. >> it could be a viable solution for brussels. many buses and trams are old but still functioning well enough as long as they are not stuck in traffic. but outside brussels, public transportation is not so good. construction of a new commute -- commuter rail network was

announced with much fanfare, but it still unfinished. the overcrowded trains are even slower now than they were 80 years ago. it's not that easy to move cars out of the city, and opinions are sharply divided. >> the traffic here in town is awful. the cars do not even let the pedestrians through. with the constant jams, too much traffic. >> i think they do everything they can to block the traffic. that's no good. businesses suffer. >> the one thing everyone agrees on is that something must be done. statistically, every belgian waste an hour -- an average of 72 hours a year in traffic or three full days. is a flexible toll a solution? >> i'm certain it's a solution that would reduce traffic in and around brussels.

if they are going to charge a fee to drive to brussels, they will have to offer alternatives. one is public transportation. to be honest, there is still a lot to be done there. >> an internet petition against the proposed toll collected 170,000 signatures almost immediately. that caught the attention of politicians. with elections coming up in may, more and more are turning up against the toll. it appears traffic reform has hit a jam. >> reform gridlock is also something italians are used to. top politicians in the eurozone's third-biggest economy are notorious for dragging their feet. it's also the reason why italy has a new government again. the former premier has spent barely one year in office when he was ousted by his very own party chairman, whose plan is to overhaul the entire political system. >> this is matteo renzi, italy's

new prime minister. at 39 years old, he's the young exception among italy's circle of long serving politicians. his message -- italy has to reinvent itself. >> the message that the politicians as a cast have been sending has not been "we serve society" but "we stick together to protect our positions." >> renzi started out in florence and has his power base there. he wasn't mayor for years. this is where he planned his attacks on silvio berlusconi's italy and the all power elites. >> when i travel overseas, i do not want to be teased about italy's public debt. we need to restore the country's pride. we've had enough of this kind of

political leadership in italy where the politicians remain and only the names of the parties change. i'm here to jump his entire political class. >> from the beginning, renzi saw his own party, the social democrats, as part of the problem. he planned a coup of the young against the old and toppled the party head. >> i think being on the left means something different from what it did the teen years ago. -- 15 years ago. it means working for social justice and against the taboos of a static, closed society. in italy, the left is in gridlock, but i believe in him and will. >> the headline and a magazine reads "somersaulted power -- a leap of faith into a difficult future." >> let's hope he's not just

another one of these familiar italian clowns. >> he wants to take us out of the swamp. usually a swamp holes you under. maybe he can drain it. >> renzi has now left behind florence's lightheartedness and the leeway of being in the opposition. now he will need skill, political acumen, and determination to reform. >> renzi has to prune back the burgeoning bureaucracy and to shed defenders hindering investment and startups. taxes are way too high in italy. they threaten our economic vigor. and we have to reduce public outlays. >> matteo renzi can relax now his big farewell party. florence has to find a new mayor. >> europe's waters are massively overfished. an estimated three in four species are endangered. to change that, the eu

commissioner in charge missed a fight with big industry and national government and completely overhaul the europe's fishery policy, but that also means the lights could go out on some small fishermen's boats. in our series "europe by night" we take you to a greek island where fishermen go out in their boats in winter time to catch fish using a special technique. it's a centuries old tradition. the question is -- how much longer will it last? >> when the sun sets, he takes to the sea. his friend is preparing the boat . a large gas lantern dangles. it does not serve any navigational purpose but is a hunting tool. it's not the only thing the pensioners need for their nocturnal charts at sea. they say the sea has to be

completely still -- no wind whatsoever. the skies must be dark and completely devoid of moonlight. the two of them glide into the darkness. they are known locally as late fishermen, and they are among the few people on these islands who practice this traditional fishing method. besides their lap, they use and eight-pronk skewer and their keen eyes -- besides their lamp, they use and eight-pronged skewer. the hunt is under way. two fish at once means the night has got off to a good start. the creatures are paralyzed by the bright light, but the hunters still have to act quickly. finding the fish in the first place is the hard part and requires great patience.

>> if you want to find the food, you have to stay out all might. >> the crisis means this is no longer just hobby fishing. it's now a means of feeding your family. the fish have become expensive. if we can catch three kilos of fish ourselves, that's a big help. >> strict eu regulations designed to counter the effects of overfishing means hobby fisherman are no longer allowed to legally fish from a boat. the right is reserved for professionals. both men oppose the ruling.

>> of course we would stop light fishing if we had the feeling it was bad for the environment, but you saw for yourself that we are not destroying anything. we only ever catch adult fish, never the young ones like the big trawlers to -- do. >> in the winter months, this is a sleepy place. the 5000 inhabitants seem to hibernate. fishing has lost its importance for locals, but the mayor does not want to miss out on the tradition. >> we are doing everything we can to ensure that fishing can be continued. it is part of our way of life.

we forget the worries of the daily grind. >> captain nicholas only serves fish he catches himself at his tavern. he prepares it himself and is one of the few locals who are critical of light fishing. he prefers to usenet -- he prefers to use nets. >> i don't like it. it's an unequal fight. i don't see what's so exciting about it. it's like killing a sleeping animal. >> nicholas serves fresh column are a -- column mari -- fresh calimari. although they use different techniques, they agree that in a few years time, the only fish that will be eaten here will have been caught i big trawlers.

>> only five percent of our fishermen are left here. the young ones are afraid to get into a boat. they prefer to spend their nights in front of a computer. hobby fishing has no future here . >> the next morning, he sharpens his fishing spear. weather conditions are forecast to remain favorable tonight, so with no wind, no moonlight, he will be back out at sea practicing the old tradition is one of the last light fissures -- fissures -- fishers. >> that report brings us to the end of this edition of "european journal." from all of us here in brussels, thanks for watching. until next time, auf wiedersehen and bye for now.

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